Stubbs: DeLaet looks like Canada’s best bet at Open

Graham DeLaet from Canada plays a shot from the bunker during the Pro-Am tournament at the 2014 RBC Canadian Open at the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Monday, July 21, 2014.Graham Hughes
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Graham DeLaet from Canada plays a shot during practice at the 2014 RBC Canadian Open at the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Montreal, Monday, July 21, 2014.Graham Hughes
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL — In temperatures that seemed a reasonable facsimile of those on the surface of Venus, the only ice you’d find at Royal Montreal Golf Club on Tuesday was that which bobbed in tumblers in the dining room of the tony clubhouse.

But still, it seemed to be not a stretch to ask Graham DeLaet, the top-ranked Canadian heading into this week’s RBC Canadian Open and a native of the prairies, a question themed to hockey.

A goal-scorer will tell you that there’s a very fine line between putting the puck in the net and not being able to put one in the ocean. So is there a comparable in golf, the microfibre-thin division between hitting fairways/draining putts and slogging through the rough/lipping the tap-ins?

“Sometimes it’s just seeing the lines and that comes with a lot of confidence, being able to really trust it, both with ball-striking and around the greens,” DeLaet said.

“It’s like the chicken or the egg: you can’t play well without confidence, but you can’t really gain confidence without playing well.”

The 32-year-old from Weyburn, Sask., leads a group of 15 Canadians into this week’s national championship, a field of 156 beginning four rounds of play on Thursday following Tuesday’s practice rounds and Wednesday’s pro-am.

DeLaet has good company. Other noteworthy Canucks carrying the Maple Leaf on their bags include David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., who tied for 32nd in last week’s British Open, and crowd favourite Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., the 2003 Masters champion who is playing in his 24th Canadian Open.

DeLaet is ranked 38th globally as he arrives for his “home” tournament, the Open returning to Royal Montreal for the first time since 2001. This will be his sixth Canadian Open, his best showing to date a tie for 46th in 2009.

It was just up the road on Île-Bizard in 2008, at St. Raphael, that DeLaet hoisted his first important trophy, winning PGA Tour Canada’s Montreal Open in a playoff.

It was more than a happy victory, it was almost necessary in his golf survival.

Regularly missing cuts and his savings growing thin, DeLaet won that Canadian Tour event in Montreal and was runner-up in two more on that year’s schedule, shoring up his sometimes fragile confidence.

To say nothing of putting a few dollars on top of the “few thousand” he said he had left in the bank at the time, results-hungry sponsors having taken their cheques elsewhere.

“It was kind of all or nothing at that time. (Winning at St. Raphael) was kind of the jump-start I needed back then,” DeLaet said of his maiden win. “Times were tight financially. I wasn’t playing with much confidence at all and I took some time off before that week.

“I knew I had to finish that season strong or I wasn’t going to have a job and I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do. But I was able to kind of put it together that week. I was fortunate enough to win in a playoff and from there everything just kind of snowballed.

“I grew some confidence and it was the next year I was able to get my PGA Tour card. It was a big step in my career, for sure, to win here (at St. Raphael).”

DeLaet has twice tied for second on the PGA Tour, coming on back-to-back January-February weekends this season.

But he’s endured his struggles of late, missing the cut in four of his most recent eight tournaments that included early exits from the U.S. Open and British Open.

“The last couple of months have been a little bit difficult,” DeLaet said. “I haven’t really been getting much out of my golf game but, that being said, I’ve been through lows before and I’ve always seemed to be able to dig myself out of them. I really feel like I’m playing a lot better than my score indicates. …

“It’s just getting a little bit of confidence rolling and I think one good round of golf could do that for me right now. Just seeing a few more putts roll in and taking it from there. I’m excited about the week.”

Royal Montreal, DeLaet says, is a “good, traditional layout (with) everything pretty much in front of you.

“There’s nothing tricky or quirky about it. It’s in great shape and I think if you can drive it well out here, you can have a lot of cracks at birdie.”

DeLaet doesn’t need to be reminded — though he is, often — that this is the 60th anniversary of Pat Fletcher’s Canadian Open win at Point Grey in Vancouver. That was the last time a Canadian won this championship, and DeLaet and every other pro representing this country knows how much it would mean to win on the grass of home.

Weir knocked loudly on the door a decade ago at Glen Abbey, finally losing to Vijay Singh on the third hole of a playoff.

“The fans across Canada, I know that no matter how we play, they’re still going to cheer us on,” DeLaet said of home-course advantage. “I don’t think we’re going to let anyone down by not winning or not playing our best golf.

“All we can do is really try our best and I guarantee every single Canadian in the field is going to give it all they have this week.”

DeLaet will begin play Thursday at 1:05 p.m., and for at least the first two rounds he’ll almost be hitting in the shadows. His playing partners are Jim Furyk, fourth in last week’s British Open and twice a winner of the Canadian Open, and Matt Kuchar, at No. 5 the world’s top-ranked player here.

Almost perfect is the fact this will be DeLaet’s 100th career PGA Tour event. So is it too much to perhaps dream about how much more special that milestone could be Sunday on the 18th green at Royal Montreal?

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